


A passing of stars

by SecretTimeIsHere



Series: The hidden star [9]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Doodlesphere, M/M, Maybe some questions answered, outertale, sorry for the bomb drop :D
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 15:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20819597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretTimeIsHere/pseuds/SecretTimeIsHere
Summary: The group of outcodes quietly closed the door, then proceeded to cheer loudly, giving pats to Dream who after told of the plan by Error managed to convince Ink to come to the mansion and high fives to Killer and Error who were both the masterminds of the plan and the ones who got Nightmare to follow them willingly.They cheered and went to the kitchen to celebrate with sweets and treats, but Paperjam couldn’t help notice a lone yellow figure stray behind and eventually walk out of the room, he followed at a distance.The guardian wandered outside, stopping before a tree before tracing a carving and letting out a few chocked sobs. A portal appeared by his side not a minute later, and he disappeared.Walking up to the tree he saw an old but bearly legible scratch of letters, withered by time and almost taken over by the decay of the bark around it.“D X NM”





	A passing of stars

Blinding light met the sockets of the young skeleton as he walked into the pocket universe, making him quickly snap his eyes shut in both frustration and pain. He always forgot to close his them, why would this time be any different? Maybe that’s just what he got for living in a dark universe.

Although most of the places he went to or lived were dark, so a good amount of the time he didn’t have to worry about travel. Nightmare’s world was dim, his home AU was dark, and the underground was a dark place too-even if his uncles lived on the surface now. That left it to the bright doodle sphere where his Dad lived and the white but not as eye burning AntiVoid.

While standing and waiting for the pain to pass, he heard a door open and light almost soundless footsteps approach. Couldn’t be his dad, since he barely knew the meaning of quiet and usually had that heavy paintbrush on him.

“Uh, are you okay young one?” Someone asked; he wasn’t sure of who since he’d never heard that voice before and currently wasn’t able to see them.

There were many people he had yet to meet, after all, he barely knew the few outcodes he does. The voice was filled with kindness and a slight hint of worry, the air grew warmer and he felt more relaxed despite not knowing who was standing in front of him and not seeing them. Other than that, his emotions didn’t change, maybe because of who his parents were?

“Yeah, just, keep forgetting to close my eyes when I first get here. Not exactly used to the brightness.” He smiled to the stranger as he felt the pain subside and the light become tolerable, he still kept them closed for a little longer, just in case.

Upon opening them he saw another skeleton, but he was different from himself. Aged white bones and pastel colors with soft blues made up his outfit and body, a small star pendant sat at home around his neck. The hoodie he had on seemed to almost weigh him down and he looked uncomfortable in the jeans he wore, he acted almost as if he wasn’t used to the privilege of wearing them.

The stranger held his head at a slight angle, giving the expression his voice laid out when he spoke. This was a stranger, they’d never met before, but he knew him.

“You’re… Dream, right?” He struggled as he tried to remember the name, but found where it lay hidden on the tip of his tongue. The now named stranger gave a small but still confused nod, “Sorry, my… Ink talks about you a lot.”

“Oh, um, are you a friend of his?” Dream calmly asked, not expecting much more than a yes.

“Eh… Kind of. You see, like my parents, I came from the AntiVoid, but I’m made from half of Ink’s magic so, technically, he’s my Dad.” Paper explained nervously, “I came to visit him for a bit before going home.”

Dream eyes went from calm ovals to jumpy circles, darting everywhere and nervous. PJ knew why, and he understood. Meeting your ex’s kid wouldn’t be on his to-do list either.

“Oh stars, that definitely explains some things… um. A-assuming your other parent is Error, would you happen to know of my past with them? Considering, well, they aren’t together and from the sounds of it you live elsewhere...”

“I do,” PJ started, “But I understand it all and why it all happened.” 

It was far from new for him, his parents' past, and he grew used to the questions, the few he did get. Sometimes Blue would worry over how he felt about their separation, other times Nightmare was worried about Ink’s well being- _ despite being past enemies he could still feel the negativity from his dad and worry _ or at the least that’s what he says, and occasionally the gang would be confused to why Error had even bothered with the artist. Nonetheless, they were questions, and with each and the discussions about them, he pieced together things no one bothered to.

His parents’ story was complex with many sides, mainly of which being the monster he lived with and the one he visited. It’s full of misunderstanding, a misleading story, one that seems to tell a story of forgiveness-and does. It just doesn't tell it the way most would hope.

Leads that connect to the future, leads that bring the curious nowhere. Emotions that don’t make sense, parts of the characters that were set in stone from the start, but they didn’t even know themselves. Theories or comments that are true, seemingly predicting the future. Others are false and don’t understand the little things and just listen for fun.

However, Listening is one thing, and reading is another. Read the story and you envelope yourself in it. You help it write it and it becomes life. This was a story that he became a co-author by coincidence and chance, but this wasn’t his story by any means. 

“I’m not that young, and my parents might not admit it, but their relationship had problems. But- they’re getting better and solving their problems, and I just want them to be happy.” He smiled, leaving the guardian in front of him even more so confused.

PJ smiled further, having picked the mystery apart and solved it himself some time ago.

“Ink loved both you and Dad, and couldn’t bear losing or choosing one of you. Plus, it’s painfully obvious Ink had some problems, even for me. Try and do the math. It’s possible. But now, I can tell he’s finally worked through those problems, and I think it’s the only reason he was able to move on from Error.”

Dream gave a blush, realizing something and putting a few pieces in the puzzle himself. Even if just a few out of the hundreds, possibly thousands.

“So he-” The guardian started but was cut off.

“Yes and yes. But anyway- I’m gonna go see to my Dad, have a good day!” PJ yelled as he ran up to the door of his second house, going into it before Dream could say another word.

The guardian stood still for some time longer, watching as the teen ran into the house. Sometimes the young are wiser than the old.

But… what was he going to do now? Should he accept his life-shattering truth or forget what the teen has said and let him know of?

  
  


\-----

  
  


“Pops?” Error gave a hum of listening as he continued cooking and checking the book Horror had got him. “I saw Dream earlier, thought I should tell you.”

A small flinch was seen at hearing the name, but no other reaction was seen, the god having his face turned away and back to his son because of the meal making he had been doing for some time.

A short few minutes later and the finished chicken was accompanied by vegetables and juice, Error finally replied:

“What’d you two talk about?” He spoke with curiosity, the last interaction he had with the guardian being emotional and difficult. Going into subjects he’d rather Dream not talk about with his son. The kid didn’t need to weight of his parents' past on his shoulders, the pressure of being a child of two gods was enough.

PJ picked at the peas on his plate as he chewed away his food, either buying time or thinking, it was hard to say. 

“Just told him who I was, nothing much more. Asked if I knew about you, him and dad, though. I told him yes and then left to visit Dad.” The teen answered smoothly, knowing well he was hiding a good amount of that conversation with Dream.

He strongly doubted the positive’s ability to hold back his curiosity, it was a well-known weakness to his enemies, something that was a struggle to hide. His mind flashed to the times he used the star sans’ curiosity to his advantage, pulling them into traps and leaving them there so he could reinstate the balance for some time.

He could remember they used it against him as well, creating a new world to capture and jail him only for him to escape shortly after-although, not without some broken bones and pains. Those days he was extremely happy to be on the bad sans’ side and to be their close friend.

“I have a feeling that isn’t all you two talked about...” Error hummed, knowing his son better than the latter thought, “Is he still looking for forgiveness?”

“Would you forgive him?” Paper replied quickly without hesitation, Error didn’t answer, he continued “You forgave Dad, even if just for me. We know he loved both of you, he just didn't understand  _ himself _ back then.”

Error struggled, the kid had him there. To be fair, a lot of things that happened could be explained away, Ink and his relationship was far from perfect. They had their heated arguments, complications, etc. but they had always managed to get past them, even if the only way there were able to was to completely forget about the argument and end up arguing over it again just some months or as little as weeks later.

They both had problems, and the relationship was a problem of its own. He at least knew and understood the difference now. Its difficult to understand love, and you’re not really meant to decipher it, it just happens. Outer and he just sort of… happened. They both knew that there might’ve been some feeling for the other, but until they chose to act on them they weren’t ever really sure.

He felt different now than when he was with Ink, he and Outer did occasionally argue, but mostly talked over their problems and actually came to solutions. With Ink… they just constantly argued over their _ agreement _ . He wouldn’t destroy, Ink wouldn’t protect.

It didn’t help that with the consideration of their past and the fact that before their relationship their only interaction was fighting, add in he had dropped close to his entire life for Ink, there was plenty to fight about. Their constant fighting was one of the primary causes of their breakup as well. When they couldn’t stand talking to each other they had others they went to. He went to Outer and sometimes Blue, Ink went to Dream.

Dream was a listening ear for Ink, a friend that could pick through his emotions and help. The thing was, their friendship escalated. With a major fight, they could feel as if they didn’t need each other. Error had accepted the fact of their… therapeutic meetings not long into the relationship, he didn’t say anything either.

He understood why Ink needed it, he didn’t exactly like the idea of an energetic relationship, it’s how he learned he was asexual in the first place. However, when their meetings turned more passionate, when Ink paid more attention to Dream, when  _ his  _ boyfriend started to care more about his friend more and more than the monster he swore he’d love forever, it really hurt. They even somewhat argued about it the night before Error left.

_ Would you forgive him? _

The question rung in his ears, bouncing back and forth from yes to no in his skull, he had forgiven Ink for Paper, yes, but they had also talked through things together. Dream… he couldn’t come up with a reason not to forgive him.

“I’ll… talk things over with him when I can.” Error caved, making a small smile come to PJ’s face. This story may just find a close.

  
  


\-----

  
  


“Heya browski! You still all up chillin’ here bro?” A flamboyant upbeat voice rung, bringing bright color in his outfit despite it being completely different from the last time he saw him.

His glasses stayed the same for the most part, but when they last saw each other, Paper was positive that he didn’t have a fanny pack, long patchwork sweats, a brown and blue tie-dye t-shirt, a large rainbow gradient sweater, and a backward baseball cap on. It almost hurt his eyes as much as the doodles here. But in a good way this time.

“Sup, light show,” Paper called back, fighting in his mind whether or not to  _ hug _ him, but those were reserved for the ones he hates, and this unnamed circus of a skeleton neither was bad or good in his mind-yet, “How you’ve been?”

The glasses changed like they did last time, reading out “RADICAL-BRO” in large font, looking oddly lopsided due to the space need for his apparent amazing time.

“I’ve been goin’ round the multi, messin’ with buddies and prankin’ few here an’ there. How’s your crib hangin’?” He conversed, going to sit down next to PJ, only to accidentally touch his hand and get it covered ink, the glasses read BUM-MER.

“Oh, sorry about that…” Paper tried, but fell short realizing he was missing a name, “Um, I don’t have your name yet mister.” 

“It’s Fresh ma bro, but like, what’s all up with the ink? Godchild goin’ on? Or more of livin’ creation?” Fresh asked, curiosity shown despite his struggle to show anything other than 90’s energy and positivity.

Godchild? That was ridiculously specific, and even more so since it hit the nail on its head-but living creation just made him seem all-knowing. Scarily so.

“Well, a bit of both. I’m just made of magic, Ink strings and bones to be specific.  _ So you better not get on my hug list. _ ” Paper smirked, smiling happily as he joked around with whom seemed to be a new friend.

Error watched on from a window, siping away at a mug of hot chocolate. Not entirely trusting Fresh, especially with his son, but for now, he could handle them talking.

He was literally a parasite, much more an Error than even him, and that was his name for Asgore’s sake! Nothing good could come out of Fresh,  _ want did he want with his son? _

“You doing alright Hun?” His partner asked, draping himself over his shoulders, giving the glitch a small grin. The pressure of the other keeping him grounded and remembering himself. “They seem to be getting along,” he commented, following Error’s line of sight.

Fresh was a neutral, much like Outer and he are, but when you had a side, Fresh wasn’t good for either. He annoyed the bad sans’ and got in their way, giving away their plans to the Stars if he felt like it, if you were on the good side he would try and infect other worlds and people, trying to add to his colony of parasites. It all depended on how the skeleton felt.

“Too well.” The destroyer grimaced, Outer chuckled in his ear, moving his arms up and wrapping his love in a loose hug to which Error returned with his unoccupied arm to the best of ability. “I just don’t know what to do when it comes to this.” He sighed.

His stern glaring expression softened to it's usual once more, there was a small smile from his lover, but it was easily flattened by the thoughts of what Fresh could want with PJ. Worry curved his brows, and his eyes drooped.

“You can't keep him sheltered forever, he’s already being schooled by Nightmare as it is. Besides, when it comes to parenting it’s hard to know what to do. We just gotta trust the kids sometimes, you’re just overthinking, love.” Error relaxed and finally looked away from the window, turning his attention to his lover.

Maybe he was just overthinking-besides, if Fresh did anything bad to him he’d have both the Dark and Star sans’ ready to beat him up on sight.

“Doesn’t stop me from worrying- but, you have a point.” Outer felt the destroyer turn in his arms and fully return his hug, the cup of chocolate set aside in favor of giving affection to him, “Thank you.”

“Of course, Star. Not easy raising a kid, I had to raise my little bro and that was hard enough.” The glitch hummed, knowing well how hard it was. He’s barely had PaperJam for half a year, the teen was almost completely different from him, but at the same time, they were magic and bone and got along.

Paper was a struggle to understand, and even more so to help. Much like him, the child grew to have issues. The AntiVoid messed with his head as much as he or Ink. The child hadn’t grown a fear of white, thankfully, but grew to have problems with communication and likely had a low-level fear of being alone.

They had to work hard to help him, much like he had done with Ink and himself when it happened to him. However, he wasn't alone in that process this time and had even more support with it then when he was helping Ink. Nightmare and the gang were always ready to help Error, and despite not really knowing how to care for a child-much less a teen, they knew how to help with issues and be there for each other.

  
  


\-----

  
  


“C’mon Night!” Cross gave a cheer, dragging Nightmare along with the help of Killer, Horror, and Dust, Error following closely behind with PJ, everyone but the King knowing of what was going on.

“What’s the matter with you all, you act as if we are going to be late for something.” He grumbled, unhappy to be pulled away from his planning. True, they got resources from going after copy timelines, but it didn’t make up for the emotional scale of the multiverse, only giving small negative boost that barely lasts several days.

His day was going to be normal, a rarity in the household, and he had planned to enjoy it. He was going to work in the garden today too! The rose bushes needed a good trimming, the berry bushes needed weeding, the vegetables and fruits needed some plant food, and the herbs could use some freshening.

However, as it always seemed to be these days, his plans were interrupted by some sudden news, his gang needed him immediately, it wasn’t life or death like most the time, and they hadn’t gotten into any trouble either. All he had been told was to follow them for a surprise.

“Don’t worry about it Gramps, these boneheads just can't wait.” The destroyer chuckled, walking casually with a wide Sans smile beaming on his skull.

He was extremely happy today, and in a great mood for once, and so was PJ, what were they planning?

“Okay, Error’s smiling, Reaper come and get me already-”

“Oh be quiet, we’re almost there!” Killer urged as he ran down the hall to their lounge. “Plus, there’s someone waiting for you~” He tempted, opening the door before Nightmare could question.

  
  


The king stopped short however, looking around only to seen encouraging smiles. There was no way, they couldn’t have, they were joking! How did they even find out? Did he really give it away that much? Okay, maybe he did… but there was no way, why would they even try? Hesitantly, he moved inside.

The wind was knocked out of him as he saw who was waiting for him in there, shock hit him like a speeding train, so much so, he didn’t notice the door closing and locking behind him.

The skeleton inside was just as shocked as he was, but that wasn’t the only thing they had in common right now, both their faces held blushes. They did. They really did do it. He doesn’t know why, or even how they did, but they did.

Nightmare couldn’t do anything but stutter, not able to keep his cool for the probably the first time in his life, if not that, then the first time in centuries. The other skeleton could only do the same as well.

At least it was clear why the two of them were stuck in a room together.

“Okay, you all! I get it! You can let us out!” Nightmare hollered at the door when opening it didn’t work, a muffled reply of  _ Not until you confess and kiss! _ Was his answer.

“Geez, why did I ever decide it was a good idea to tell Error.” Ink whined, plopping down onto the couch, an upset and stressed expression on his face. Nightmare turned back to the ex protector, soul pounding. Yes, he could teleport or portal out, and so could Ink, but judging by the fact he had yet to leave, they both were thinking the same thing.

They were going to have to do this eventually anyway.

Nightmare sighed and allowed a soft smile to show, going to sit down next to Ink.

The artist felt the cushion next to him dip, and looked over to the cause of it in surprise, but didn’t say anything, enchanted by the smal genuine smile the dark King held. It was a small gesture, but the small things made all the difference for him.

Soon enough, without any talking of any kind, they just started leaning against each other and let their bodies fall back into the old couch. Their hands finding each other and intertwining.

“Should we be Disney cliche and profess our undying love or just do or own thing?” Nightmare joked after some time, gaining a laugh from the skeleton next to him, the negative energy seemingly evaporating from him and being replaced with positivity.

The ex protector’s body relaxed, and a smile slowly found its way onto his ink-stained skull. The inky blush complementing the Blue heart and pink star.

As they both turned their faces to one and another, they leaned closer, everything so right, the distance was closed and the last thing Nightmare saw before he closed his eye was a handsome face in front of him with an orange exclamation mark and a bright pink heart.

The group of outcodes quietly closed the door, then proceeded to cheer loudly, giving pats to Dream who after told of the plan by Error managed to convince Ink to come to the mansion and high fives to Killer and Error who were both the masterminds of the plan and the ones who got Nightmare to follow them willingly.

They cheered and went to the kitchen to celebrate with sweets and treats, but Paperjam couldn’t help notice a lone yellow figure stray behind and eventually walk out of the room, he followed at a distance.

The guardian wandered outside, stopping before a tree before tracing a carving and letting out a few chocked sobs. A portal appeared by his side not a minute later, and he disappeared.

Walking up to the tree he saw an old but bearly legible scratch of letters, withered by time and almost taken over by the decay of the bark around it.

“D X NM”

**Author's Note:**

> Don't worry, this'll be updated next Sunday :D
> 
> [Until then, you get to suffer with this angst.]


End file.
